This invention relates to tools for cutting materials such as paneling and drywall, and in particular to hand tools which are used to cut these materials by passing a blade over them several times.
During the 1920s and '30s, the materials used to make interior walls of buildings were generally soft composition (fiber) materials which were less dense and thinner than present-day materials such as paneling and drywall. Those tools disclosed in Wendelken, U.S. Pat. No. 1,915,636 and Cook, U.S. Pat. No. 1,956,275, were specifically suited for those softer materials. The disclosure of Wendelken recites that the material in mind is "wall board of pulp or paper composition," while in Cook it is "fibrous compositions, such as composition board". Thus with the advent of the modern-day walling materials which are much harder, these tools no long functioned properly.
Accompanying the arrival of these harder materials was the more widespread distribution and use of electricity as an energy source, and a corresponding increase in the availability and usefulness of electric cutting tools, such as electric saws and in particular electric jigsaws. During the past decade, however, it has become apparent that the world's energy resources are not inexhaustible, and so the need for improved hand tools to accomplish these tasks as well as others has again increased.
This invention relates to solutions to the problems enumerated above.